A Textual Deconstruction of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

2008 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-92
Author(s):  
Susan Gately ◽  
Christy Hammer ◽  

The extremely well-known holiday television special Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is deconstructed to expose an underlying philosophical paradigm towards people, especially children, with disabilities that is mechanistic and utilitarian. This paradigm includes a static and over-determined view of any disability a person may have, and can be erroneously supported by a philosophy of “radical freedom.” Examples of this philosophy of disability as applied to the K-12 realm of special education are also provided, showing how the lessons learned from the children’s movie are mirrored in the static conceptualization of the notion of disability in the general society and educational system.

Author(s):  
Nilsa J. Thorsos ◽  
Britt Ferguson ◽  
J.B. Robinson

This chapter explored the impact of COVID-19 on candidates enrolled in Education Specialist credential programs at a private institute of higher education (IHEs) in California. COVID-19 impacted humankind globally and specifically interrupted formal education at educational institutional levels. Many IHEs offer their programs in a face-to-face, online, or hybrid modality to ensure candidates have access to school sites and complete their fieldwork hours requirements. The quarantine impacted teacher candidates at many levels especially interns employed in K-12 special education classroom settings. The authors drew data from three sources available at the university: (1) Special Education Student Success Faculty (SSF) team's DFWUI referrals, (2) SSF's weekly meeting minutes, and (3) university's data wellness. This data was analyzed and examined. Findings informed program directors on strategic program planning based on lessons learned from this historic pandemic.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter J. Voice ◽  
◽  
Thomas Howe ◽  
Heather L. Petcovic

2021 ◽  
Vol 102 (5) ◽  
pp. 29-32
Author(s):  
Rick Hess ◽  
Pedro Noguera

In 2020, Rick Hess and Pedro Noguera engaged in a long-running correspondence that tackled many of the biggest questions in education — including topics like school choice, equity and diversity, testing, privatization, the achievement gap, social and emotional learning, and civics. They sought to unpack their disagreements, better understand one another’s perspectives, and seek places of agreement or points of common understanding. Their correspondence appears in their book, A Search for Common Ground: Conversations About the Toughest Questions in K-12 Education (Teachers College Press, 2021). In this article, they reflect on the exercise, what they learned from it, and what lessons it might offer to educators, education leaders, researchers, and policy makers.


2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 197-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul L. Morgan ◽  
Michelle L. Frisco ◽  
George Farkas2 ◽  
Jacob Hibel

Editor’s Note Since the landmark enactment of Education of the Handicapped Act in 1975, special education supports and services have been provided to children with disabilities. Although costly, the intentionality of these specialized services has been to advance the educational and societal opportunities of children with disabilities as they progress to adulthood. For our republished article in this issue of JSE’s 50th anniversary volume, we have selected an article by Paul Morgan, Michelle Frisco, George Farkas, and Jacob Hibel. In this research, Morgan and his colleagues quantified the effectiveness of special education services on children’s learning and behavioral outcomes using large-scale longitudinal data. Their results challenge all education professionals to explore ways to increase the effectiveness of special education and to document research efforts that provide clear evidence that the services and supports provided to individuals with disabilities are improving the extent to which they fully experience the benefits of education and participate fully in society.


Author(s):  
Emily C. Bouck ◽  
Phil Sands ◽  
Holly Long ◽  
Aman Yadav

Increasingly in K–12 schools, students are gaining access to computational thinking (CT) and computer science (CS). This access, however, is not always extended to students with disabilities. One way to increase CT and CS (CT/CS) exposure for students with disabilities is through preparing special education teachers to do so. In this study, researchers explore exposing special education preservice teachers to the ideas of CT/CS in the context of a mathematics methods course for students with disabilities or those at risk of disability. Through analyzing lesson plans and reflections from 31 preservice special education teachers, the researchers learned that overall emerging promise exists with regard to the limited exposure of preservice special education teachers to CT/CS in mathematics. Specifically, preservice teachers demonstrated the ability to include CT/CS in math lesson plans and showed understanding of how CT/CS might enhance instruction with students with disabilities via reflections on these lessons. The researchers, however, also found a need for increased experiences and opportunities for preservice special education teachers with CT/CS to more positively impact access for students with disabilities.


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. S438-S438
Author(s):  
I. Rozentsvit

If fostering emotional intelligence and empathic imagination and solving ethical dilemmas were discussed openly and taught methodically in K-12 mainstream (“typical”) classrooms, would we need metal detectors at the inner city schools’ entrances, and would we need special anti-bullying programs, which intend to correct bullying culture, rather than build a new one, based on kindness, openness, and consideration for others?Will we learn lessons from the Columbine High School and the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacres, and radically change educational system, to incorporate empathic imagination and emotional intelligence into mainstream K-12 curriculum – as a mandatory discipline – instead of leaving this important part of learning and character formatting only to the special education sphere?This symposium represents a collaborative effort of four educators from various disciplines who crossed boundaries to emphasize and foster emotional intelligence and empathic imagination throughout the K-12 curriculum.The following are the parts of the proposed multidisciplinary panel:– multidisciplinary approach to revolutionary education, or paradigm shift towards fostering emotional intelligence and empathic imagination across the mainstream curriculum;– Descartes’ error, the triune brain, and neurobiology of emotional intelligence;– changing our consciousness: imagining the emotional experience of the other;– teaching social skills and play therapy in schools: report from the trenches of special education;– examining cultural artifacts, tools for personal, emotional, and academic development;– growing kind kids: mindfulness and the whole-brained child;– Emotional Imprint™ at the street squash: ‘If you talk, you don’t kill.’Disclosure of interestThe author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.


1994 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 254-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elana Esterson Rock ◽  
Michael S. Rosenberg ◽  
Deborah T. Carran

This study examined educational program and teacher variables to identify factors that predict the reintegration of students with serious emotional disturbance (SED) into less restrictive placements. Data on program demographics, reintegration orientation, teacher reintegration training, and teacher attitudes toward reintegration were collected from 162 special education teachers and 31 administrators in restrictive placements for K-12 students with SED. This information was compared to the reintegration rates of students in those schools through the use of a hierarchical set regression analysis. Results indicated that reintegration orientation, demographic characteristics of restrictive SED programs, and particular experiences/training of special educators predict the reintegration of students with SED into less restrictive programs.


1998 ◽  
Vol 180 (2) ◽  
pp. 17-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Nathanson

This article deals in depth with perhaps the most troubling education issue of the day—funding and proper distribution of educational resources. How is the money raised and how is its allocation decided? Can the ideals of both justice and equality be served? Is “extra” spending on behalf of children with special needs justified? Stephen Nathanson raises the central questions and, approaching them from a moral-philosophical standpoint, presents and evaluates the arguments of those who defend extra spending for children with disabilities and those who believe that “unequal” spending violates the principle of justice. Nathanson treats various theories of distributive justice—entitlement, utilitarianism, the “difference principle,” and the “decent level” idea. In focusing on the latter, he contends that social consensus developed around “decent level” may be the touchstone, more helpful than any rationale (or rhetoric) in satisfying the claims of justice and equality.


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